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Wisconsin Democrats Start Drive to Recall Governor

By Monica Davey October 10, 2011 11:22 pmOctober 10, 2011 11:22 pm

Democrats in Wisconsin made a long-mulled plan official on Monday night: next month, people will begin collecting signatures to recall Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican in his first year in office whose move to limit collective bargaining rights for public workers set off a political firestorm across the state.

“The people of Wisconsin feel duped,” said Mike Tate, the chairman of the state Democratic Party, in an interview Monday night on “The Ed Show” on MSNBC. In the interview, he announced that activist groups, many of them already involved in protests earlier this year over the collective bargaining question, would begin gathering thousands of signatures on Nov. 15.

Some in Wisconsin thought the recall effort against Mr. Walker might never really materialize. Recall efforts against state senators over the same issues last summer had been bruising and costly, and though two Republicans lost their seats, it was not enough to end Republican control of both chambers of the legislature. The recall requirements, too, are grueling: organizers must gather 540,208 valid signatures (a quarter of the votes cast in last fall’s election for governor) within 60 days of their Nov. 15 start.

Under Wisconsin’s recall procedure, if the proper number of signatures is verified, Mr. Walker would be required to run again for his office. So far, no Democrat has formally announced plans to oppose him, though Monday night’s developments were certain to set off discussions in all corners of the state about who should run.

Any recall election itself would be required to take place in relatively short order – perhaps in May, Mr. Tate said.

The Democrats’ announcement that they will move forward immediately all but ensured that the recall election will not coincide with the presidential election next November. (This is almost the earliest that the Democrats could possibly move for recall; the state’s rules require a politician to hold office for at least a year, and Mr. Walker was sworn in at the start of January.)

Some anti-Walker forces had hoped to wait on the signature drive, and thus push the recall election itself until November, believing that President Obama’s presence on the ballot might help bring out those who would wish to remove Mr. Walker.

But some supporters of President Obama have expressed concern about complicating the president’s re-election efforts with the contentious fight over the governor, efforts that also seem certain to draw considerable interest and investments from outside conservative groups.

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